dontstarvefandomcom-20200222-history
Guides/How to Make a Pretty Decent Base Camp
Here is a strategy on how to survive in don't starve and make it easily through the winter- The absolute first thing the player wants to do when they start the game and are collecting supplies is to wander around until you find a herd of Beefalo. Beefalo are usually found on a savanna, as are rabbits, so if you can find a herd of Beefalo on a savanna which borders grasslands, this is the prime spot to make your camp. If you can also avoid being near water then that would be ideal, as it lessens your chance of having pengulls in your camp at winter, but don't worry about it too much as they are only aggressive if attacked. Once you have set up a camp with a fire pit and your science machine and alchemy engine and a chest, you can really get things going. When setting up camp, make sure you are within walking distance of the Beefalo, but not able to see them on screen from your camp, as they do become aggressive every now and then when you are too close during certain times of the year for a few days. Another bonus of being near Beefalo is that when the wolves spawn, you can lead them to the Beefalo and run in circles until the wolves attack the Beefalo and the Beefalo will kill them. Anyway, after the player has a camp, adventure around. Have a string of traps for rabbits on the savanna- preferably 3 near each other and your camp- and set them directly over a rabbit hole. This is a sure way to get 2-6 rabbits daily, if you check them each morning or evening. The next step is to collect manure, probably about 20. Also make sure you have prototyped a shovel, whenever the player sees a berry bush, pick the berries and then dig it up and plant it at the camp until the base has about a dozen bushes, and fertilize them with the manure so they can start producing berries. At this point it is also very helpful to have a lightning rod and place it near camp to protect your berry bushes as they are likely very close together. If the player is playing as willow, be very careful when your sanity is low so you don't light your berry bushes on fire. Once the player has berry bushes set up, you might want to collect more manure and set up 4-5 improved farms, or basic farms- they will produce food every 2-4 days and are very easy to maintain as birds drop seeds fairly often. Then you need to take a day trip to isolated trees far away from your camp (to avoid having the chance of a forest fire near your base), and then burn them(with a torch). Chop down a decent amount of the burned trees until you have a stack or two of charcoal, which will provide you with the materials to build drying racks. Charcoal is also a helpful for fuel for fires, and crockpots. When you're burning down the trees, if a treeguard spawns, you do not have to kill it. When cutting down or burning trees, always have about 5 pinecones on you. If a treeguard spawns, run away for a minute and then run back and very very quickly plant a pinecone near the treeguard. You have to be very near them for this to work, and it will probably take a few pinecones, so it will take a couple attempts, but when you have planted a couple pinecones close enough, the treeguard will be pacified. It may revert to tree form or continue to walk around for a while, but it will not attack you again unless you chop down any sort of tree. This does limit your resources for fires, but I would suggest scavenging logs by digging up trunks and keeping them in a chest for backup and crafting and using other materials for fires- it isn't too difficult. In fact, once you have your berries and farms, I would actually suggest planting 20 or so trees near your camp and cutting them down, digging up the stumps, and replanting them with the pinecones they drop every few days until a treeguard spawns. Even if it means it will be difficult and generally inconvenient to get wood in the future, a pacified treeguard can actually guard from enemies in the surrounding area and will generally just wander around. Don't walk too near it for too long, as it does lower your sanity, but it is generally more help than hurt in the long run. Anyway, back to the drying racks. I would suggest making 5-10 of these at your camp, and place morsels from the rabbits you catch on them. Every 2-3 days they will produce jerky, which you can harvest. Not only does jerky restore hunger, sanity, and health, but it also has a very long lasting time before it spoils, particularly because as you add more brand new jerky to the older jerky stack the lasting time will go back up a little. You can just put the jerky in a chest as long as you keep an eye on it, but I would suggest finding the materials needed to craft an icebox to optimize how long the jerky- as well as plants from the farms- will last. So, now the player has a good camp set up. Either trees or a treeguard, Beefalo nearby, manure, farms, berries, rabbit jerky- and winter is probably right around the corner or already there, as default winter starts on day 21. Hopefully winter hasn't started yet but is nearly there, then stop harvesting your jerky and let it stay on the racks so that it doesn't start spoiling- it can be your emergency source of food. Farms and berries will not provide food during winter, and if the berries do keep growing, it will be a very long time before they regrow. Build another couple of chests and fill them with living rabbits- you can use these rabbits to make rabbit earmuffs or food. Having a pair of rabbit earmuffs is a necessity, unless you have other warming clothes. It is best to also craft a thermal stone for winter. The next thing to do to prepare is to have stacks of manure and charcoal and cut grass (and wood if you haven't woken a treeguard) dropped next to your fire pit. Venture a ways away from camp and dig up a dozen or so saplings (this can be helpful after winter). With your saplings, rabbits, and jerky, you should be able to make it through the winter- especially if you have an icebox with some of the food from your farms before winter. If your traps are close enough, you can even harvest more rabbits for morsels throughout winter. Also, if you do end up right next to a pengull nest, then you can steal their eggs- but you absolutely have to wait until it's night and they are asleep, or they will kill you instantly. There might be only one or two eggs left out at night, but still- free food. If the player's winter has just ended, then here are the next steps. First, craft a log suit and a spear and spend a day venturing out to kill spiders and destroy their nests. The silk can be very valuable for crafting. Kill spiders until it is either night time, or you are rather hurt, or you are satisfied with the amount of supplies you have, and then head back to your camp. Make a top hat. This is important in the future for crafting a prestihatitator. Wear the top hat until it is at 1%, so as to be most efficient. If you find a lureplant, kill it, and place it in the middle of the beefalo herd, it will kill one or two and while it is doing so you can steal the big meat to put on your drying racks. So, now that you have probably a dozen meat, and more on the way, you can start making jerky with it. Cook 4 of your meat and save it for making a meat effigy, which will resurrect you in case of death. To get the other main part of the ingredients, beard shavings, you have to get your sanity down to below 50- make sure that you already have 4 rabbits in your inventory so as soon as your sanity lowers enough they will turn into beardlings and then you can raise your sanity as soon as possible. This is another reason I like the character willow- she starts at a lower sanity level but literally all you have to do to raise your sanity in 5 seconds is start a forest fire. Anyways, that should get you set up to not starve forever. You now have berries, farms, infinite jerky and/or meat and morsels or rabbits, 2 forms of protection from the treeguard and Beefalo, probably chests full of rabbits, and a means of being resurrected when you die. That all sounds pretty awesome to me. Have fun not starving!